The Consistent Bright Spring Landscape

Rarely do the people whose natural colouring fits into this Season realize it. When Julie Andrews played Mary Poppins, she portrayed the average of this appearance and character to perfection. Her hair was dark but the overall effect was of light and clarity. Even her speech and manner were clipped and brisk. She was elegant and groomed and made riding the carousel in a sidewalk chalk picture normal and natural, elegance and magic at once. In Mary’s world, imagination and reality were the same and make-believe didn’t exist.

Image Property of Disney Film Studios

The word Season describes your natural colouring. In the colour world, there are 12. A personal colour analysis tells you which is yours. Why use the word Season, it sounds so dated? Because you are a child of a planet whose landscapes change as it circles (actually, ellipses)the sun on an axis, and we call those changing scenes seasons. The pigments of your skin fit into certain of those landscapes without beginning or end. There is no me, there is no you, there is no line that separates us from our world. I didn’t make that up or believe it from a yoga video. They’re called mirror neurons and they’re quite real. For honouring and celebrating the amazing coolness of being here, Season is a great word.

Your pigmentation causes the same frequency and wavelength of light waves to be reflected from your body (because that’s what colour is) as those reflected from your seasonal landscape. Nature’s wizardry doesn’t end there. The waves that move in that frequency and wavelength can be absorbed by the retina of another being and create electrical energy that becomes biomolecular energy. This generates an image in the brain tissue of that other. Were that other’s eyes closed and you could stimulate those eye neurons in that same way, you’d generate the same image in their brain.

Season is not about how skin looks, it’s about how it reacts. It needs to be given something to react to, like drapes or makeup or clothes. Otherwise, I don’t have a clue. You could argue that human pigmentation can’t possibly be narrowed down to 12 groups. Sure enough, you could have 20 or 30, but at some point, a very powerful way of improving your closet and your bank account would be too weak to work. There would be too many similarities among them to make each unique. The fact is, an eye isn’t able to tell that many similar colours apart.

The pigments that make up a Bright Spring person look a lot like the True Spring colours, meaning they’re clear and pure, warmed by yellow, and fairly light. When those colours get mixed with a bit of Winter’s, they become even more clear, but less warm and less light. With input from 2 True Seasons, Bright Spring is called a Neutral Season. They have warmer and cooler versions of each colour in their skin, hair, and eyes, and so in their colour palette.

Though the Spring presence is biggest, Winter always deals a strong hand. Often, these people resemble Winters, have been told they’re Winters, and dress like Winters. Once their hair turns white, they move over to Summer’s wardrobe and would look better if they’d stuck with Winter.

Landscapes

With the great distance between the parent Seasons of Winter and Spring, the landscapes are as variable as the individuals. The colours speak to me as lush and wild, so the landscape the same, like a jungle. The overwhelming collective life force of Spring and the violence of Winter co-exist. Winter places a cool veneer on the surface but the invisible reality is of life energy gathering force to sustain the frenzy of freedom and bloom that is coming in True Spring. Tension is building, for when this spring uncoils, True Spring will very truly have sprung.

These people have a thousand variations. My picture is pretty hot, or at least building up a lot of charge. AC pictures the melting snow running among the newest flowers. In the comment dated August 23 following The Brown-Eyed Spring article, which is also about Bright Spring, she said

One of the pictures that I have of Bright spring in my mind is of a landscape with frost and the first yellow and purple spring flowers peeping through the snow, the sound of water running under the clear ice, the crisp clear wind, the feeling that it may all freeze over again, but also the knowing that eventually it will be spring. Life will prevail.

She is in fine tune with her colours because she is on the cool side of her Season, so it’s apt that her inner landscape be cooler. Most interesting that the picture she resonates with coincides exactly with her position among the Seasons.You can follow a link to her very beautiful face in the comment mentioned above. Perhaps, her colour story looks like this.

The Persona

Tinsel.

This person sparkles. They have wit, conversation, joy, and humour. Winter gives them formality, organization, and some seriousness with the darkness in their appearance, but it’s not heavy-handed. Spring’s sunshine relaxes them, still with enough cool to give them quickness of movement.

Playful, cold, and clean, it’s all fun and games but there are many reasons for not wanting to get in this water. Winter means risk. Winter element brings an edge, something that isn’t too comfortable. Winter will never make everything too easy for anybody. Like neon, we brace for this colour. In the beginning, you need to roll the dice and have a little faith that you look years younger. Don’t look at the drapes, look at the face when you’re choosing a Season.

These persons look more delicate than they are, like the finest icicles and waterfalls. This is not daintiness, frills, or fragility. Rather, think of the morning after a freezing rainstorm. The branches are coated with a thin layer of ice, looking like frozen feathers. The world looks more tough than soft, but we feel no threat. The sun is getting warmer, we can hear the music of melting ice, and we know the tough part is temporary, almost pretend. In scenery that seems so tight and yet is so easy to snap lies a contradiction that feels excitable and exciting, almost high-strung, to know everything could change in an instant with the right touch.

Light bounces everywhere. We know the thaw is imminent. Just a little more sun, a little more time, already we anticipate the gladness of Winter’s passage, and might even miss its majestic and solitary beauty just a little. While still quiet and cold, the colour information tells you this is not November.

This is a charming and very social person. Spring’s easy smile greets you, more friendly than you really expected. Spring’s love of dialogue appears, less reserved and more joking than you really expected. You’re carried along by an optimistic and open personality, but one who never fully lets themselves go. Winter still has a hand on the wheel and decorum will matter. It crosses your mind to wonder why this dark landscape is so sunny. How can it feel so right to have the sun out at night?

The Clothes

Since who we are not is 90% of the inventory of any store, 97% in Bright Spring’s case, let’s get a sense of what that looks like: earthy, heathery, dusty, misty, hazy, dilute, creamy, undefined, slouchy, rough, rugged, chunky, cozy, faded, subdued, faint.

The person is: spirited, vivacious, happy, charming. They’re the can of ice cold 7Up. Bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, ready for action, curious, and interested in everything. The body carriage is upright and perky, movements are quick and snappy, and none of this goes with the adjectives in the preceding paragraph.

What would it feel like to be standing by those crocuses above or in the jungle at sunrise with your eyes closed? The air is clean and brisk. It’s soft and sharp at once. You smell wet ground and new life. You’d prefer to keep one eye open, having no sense of being snug or sheltered, but it’s still ok. You’re pretty sure nothing’s coming to get you. Birth always brings so much hope and promise that this feels more like a party. Life is so vital right now that it feels a bit unsteady. When you open your eyes, you expect that it will look different than moments ago. How might you do that with apparel?

Unconventional. If you do floral, make the flowers blue or green or extreme purple and turquoise (black flowers are a harder take on life, leave them to Winter). If you do tweed, make it pink (tweed being Autumn’s texture, but everyone needs warm clothes; think of a one-of-a-kind Chanel suit).

The problem with plaid is the same as with paisley, it is widely recognized as a workday fabric. It says practical (Autumn), not playful (Spring). The prominent squares say functional (A), not fun (S). Flannel is another less-than-perfect fit. By its texture, it dulls colour and says grounded. Bright Spring might feel useful, sensible, and pragmatic, but others see decorative to ornamental. Crystal is not down-to-earth. The Zen moment is when everything you add to you keeps your compass pointing the same way. Compliments become holistic, about the whole you, because no element sticks out, pointing away from your True North. Pick shiny over muffled in fabric.

Winter looks right when they’re overdressed for the occasion compared to everyone else. BSp carries some of that, though they wear informality better. High end workout clothes are great. Jeans are often (not always) too rough. This person shines. They’d look good in a dress made of tin foil. It’s light, delicate, shiny, and hard till you touch it. Softening effects, like scalloped edges, are less good. Youthful looks work on Bright Spring with care, keeping enough formality to balance the Winter that looks bigger than it is. Polka dots to satisfy Winter’s classic style could be great in a formal and still symmetric design, or it becomes too young.

Spring is young. Modern textile is better. It takes up more dye, not dulling fabric. The same colour is more muted in wool than Lululemmon knit.

I want to direct you to a comment AC added, dated Sept 11, is this woman getting a handle on her colouring, I ask you? After How Winters Intensify Eye Colour. She has realized that her colouring is assembled like a triadic colour scheme, meaning 3 colours equidistant on the colour wheel. Of course it is, the brilliant woman! Triadic colour schemes are brilliant on Springs. Anything based on a triangle is, but take care. Bright Spring isn’t that zingy. That scheme is very invigorating at any darkness level. This natural colouring is more settled. Use the 3 colours but keep one element smaller in proportion.

The palette shines light outward, while Winter palettes always absorb more than they reflect. As light gets hotter and we approach True Spring, the sun will heat up even more. Below, you see Bright Winter on the left, Bright Spring on the right.

Anything too crayon/child’s drawing/cheery/playful is the extreme to avoid. Winter is very grownup, formal, majestic, regal, like kings and queens. Find the balance that still says elegance and excellent taste. You can wear a lot of colour well, but use those grays, small areas of B&W, and some darker colours that feel more serious.

Colours that are too soft, too pastel, too grayed – from a distance, those elements would all flow together, which is Summer’s watercolour look. Bright Spring facial features are very distinct from one another. Outfits look better when they are too, with adjustments for your own personal appearance. Bold elements and intense colour are better. Following The Brown-Eyed Spring article linked above, there is some great discussion for those interested in the use contrast, with links to Imogen Lamport’s excellent explanations (If you don’t know her blog, you should. I find her better than anyone at explaining fashion concepts and their practical, real world, real body, real budget application). I’m sorry, I’m not very helpful, my brain locks up, but grateful that Fil, Imogen, and others can help.

Most of you easily have the darkness to wear black. When it’s solid, it looks too heavy and dark. When it’s lightened up, it looks more delicate and crystalline, and if ever a word described you, that would be it. This Pointelle Cashmere Cardigan is great. Every Spring should take advantage of transparency, in clothes, makeup, jewelry, hair laminates, wherever. Wear a bright shell underneath, not black or white or neutral, all of which are too serious and not invigorating enough. As much as crystalline is real and right on you, the other big word for me is glaze. So thin it could crack, transparent sugar.

Bright Spring Makeup

Winter’s red influence is far-reaching. Logic might tell you that this person will wear their warmer bright melon well in blush and lipstick because the Spring element is dominant in their colouring. To my eye, the pinks look better. They can be warmer and cooler but they feel more right than orange variations.

Every Season has their extremes, True Spring tambourine jingling hippie, Soft Autumn Earth Mother, Bright Spring harlequin, bells on the hat and all. The makeup takes some courage here, at least the lip colour. Start with sheer since transparency works. Hair can be very dark but the skin usually is light and bright and needs that in makeup. Lauder is one of my favorites for clear colour in lip products. Wild Rose, Lush Rose, Rich and Rosy, gloss in Fresh Berry and Wild Coral.

Mixing MAC Dollymix and Fleur Power is good. Shiseido RD 401 is a nice blush. Smashbox Radiance is too.

Eyeshadow is harder than anything to find, especially if you prefer matte textures or have mature skin and wear them better. Nothing here you’d call brown. The greys in the beads in the choker and in the diamond shaped earrings below are examples of good colours. The colour is mostly grey and neither earthy (which is usually an orange grey or brown, like a saddle, or a green grey or brown, like army), nor Winter’s hard, dark, cold knife grey.

Examples? Help me out here if you know of any. Become the artist and mix your pigments. Use Clarins Vanilla Beige or MAC Chamomile under the brow, and then again to lighten and yellow MAC Print a little, turn it into that cleanest yellowed taupe. MAC Mystery was suggested, a really good clean brown. Make your life easy, and mine so I don’t have to scour the makeup counters in search of something hard to find on a good day, and buy Mediatrix, Conversationalist, and Upbeat from eleablake. I’d have to buy Daisies and Diamonds too, to make colours I already own right and to bring out the yellow in these eyes. (and check out Dishy blush while you’re there).

Bright Spring Accessories

Do not have a brown or black purse. Connected to a person so sparkly, it looks like luggage. Ditto the generic brown or black shoe, suitcases on feet. Black is fine if it’s not chunky and usual.

One part of shopping is crazyeasy for Brights : jewelry. Wear lots of it. It looks good. You sparkle and so does it. Not matched? No problem. From Harry Winston to costume jewelry. Fancy, cheap, pretty, silly, all fine if it reminds you of the thinnest layer of crackling glass.

Look for delicate, not heavy and complicated, not 10 interwoven strands of pearls and chains. I looked for purity of colour, for colour a person would notice within 2 seconds of shaking your hand, for movement, jingle, like bells on a velvet rope, like crystals suspended in mid-air. When I think of Winter, I keep coming back to dry. Spring, I get sugary, so I looked for a little sweetness in the frost.

I like hearts. Above, they’re little twinkles. Bright Winter is big glitter, harder words for a colder Season. This is frost, not ice. Swarovski is all you really need.

Learning and becoming your Season is like hearing a language you grew up with. I had a Russian grandmother. Understood it fine till I was 10 and we moved from Montreal. Now, I get the odd word, but there’s still roots in that soil. At first, it will feel very foreign, very “I have no idea what this colour language is saying to me.” Look inward for truth and you’d admit it plucked a string. Something felt a ping. From there, you keep moving towards it. Because you already are it, you’ll move fast. You’ll find a place waiting for you that will enfold you, while another person would always stay the square peg. You can choose to stand still, but life is much more fun if you keep moving towards the heat.

Christine – you hit my inner landscape spot on. I was thinking of crocuses, just wasn’t sure of the name in English. I love the Polar bear playing in the water and the idea of a “morning after a freezing rainstorm. The branches are coated with a thin layer of ice, looking like frozen feathers. The world looks more tough than soft, but we feel no threat. The sun is getting warmer, we can hear the music of melting ice, and we know the tough part is temporary, almost pretend.”
But I am warming to the jungle and the lush power colours. I just wasn’t in any way even remotely aware that “hot flipping powerful pink” connects with my lips, makes my hair shine and my eyes go bright green.
You nailed it, Christine. At least for me.
I am really glad my comment on the triadic combination spurred something for you. I have gained so much from reading your posts – and I am sure I will continue to do so.

May I add that I never really “believed” in the personality traits – it felt a bit too much like horoscopes to me. However (even before your article above) when I began reading about winters and springs I realized that this is me. I felt at home. Not boxed in, just at home. This is my turf. Many of the things you have written above are very true for me. It may vary a lot from person to person, but the combination of power and fragility is there. It is almost like the classic idea of an artist. Extreme power when on stage and at times unbelievable fragility behind the stage. I think the clue is to recognize one self in the landscape… or rather – allowing your self to be who you really are and not trying to change that, but instead to enjoy its inherent force.

Thank you very much for your work (writing isn’t easy, but you do it very well). I will read your article many times :-)

Christine, thank you for writing about Bright Springs! I am going to take the time to read your post in detail this weekend. I love to see how other people view/experience the season. Already from a quick browsing I see many bits that ring very true.

I have come to think that Bright Springs are firmily on the upper-right corner of the Enneagram: Nines :), Twos, but also Ones with a strong Seven connection, and many Threes. And have you noticed how BSp’s pepper their comments with smiley faces? ;) !! (and exclamation marks!)

Wonderful! What’s interested me most is separating out where the line is between Bright Winter and Bright Spring is – as you say, once you know what your season is NOT it gets much easier to identify and recognise what your season IS. The description of light reflecting out and light being absorbed told me a lot, I would have put the bright bright bright colours in Bright Winter as well, but I’m starting to see now the two sides of that same coin. A bit like the difference between a soft autumn and a soft summer, and understanding that it isn’t just the warm/cool shades of the same colour group, and that there are particular characteristics of those seasons and the way that they influence each other.

I was analysed by the UK based House of Colour as a jewel (bright) winter, (and yes, I’m the one who hated being a soft autumn…. LOL, that kind of explains why it wasn’t working!) but have grabbed the opportunity for a Sci/Art analysis and am meeting Nikki in London soon! Thank you for flagging up her UK visit! In the meantime, if Nikki doesn’t agree with Bright Winter for me, each new nugget of understanding about how unique the colour groups are is fascinating and builds more knowledge. I’m so enjoying this landscapes series, the multi sensory descriptions are powerful.

Thanks Christine
for this lovely artikel about Bright Spring colouring :-)
Now I better understand, why I always has been attracted to bright color all my life
in clothes, flowers, decoration, furnishing my house and even my car is bright red :-D
Great work – I am impressed who much I can tell about colors and I learn something new every day.
CanÂ´t wait to get your new book :-)
Love from Anette Denmark

I love the idea that once you become internally aware of your own personal place in your season, you can find ways to express that in pictures, clothing, and everything that surrounds you. To me it shows how we all represent the rainbow of humanity. I feel like jumping up and shouting ‘GO US! Be who you are!’ It also makes me realize how diverse life is and how the people we come into contact with every day really make up the tapestry in which we live.

I couldn’t help posting because I’m so excited about being me. I love to look at others and see how wonderful they are, how beautiful they are and how amazing they have lived their lives. I haven’t taken enough time to see how I can contribute to life and that I am an important part of that too. I really feel like I am beginning to tap into my own seasonal connection and I’m starting to feel more comfortable with who I am deep inside.

Thanks again for the great article and wonderful comments. There is a great bunch of people here and I totally agreen with Helen, the multi sensory discriptions are very powerful. Love it!

I’ve now read this article so many times. Love the descriptions and the pictures — lovely Julie Andrews, adorable polar bear, the beautiful crocus, and can you believe that stunning blue tinge on the snow (like our icy blue)? The concept of Bright Spring has expanded in my mind, and so has the love for this season. And for some strange reason, “high-end workout clothes” have been on my mind since “becoming” a BSp :). You-re right, jeans not so much. Ditto on the black shoes, though with my hair color I tend to like these, but they need to be a bit more feminine. Black in clothing looks better if it is a bit warmed up with a touch of yellow, otherwise it can be pretty overwhelming. And I can now give up they idea of chunky jewlery, which I never liked, but thought I ought to }:(

The polyvore shows the contrast between BW and BSp so well. It is worth taking the time to find BSp colors/combinations, BW or DAu just doesn’t cut it.

Melinda – just wanted to say that I always enjoy reading your comments. You have such a full on, happy, investigating (in a positive sense), curious approach. I hope people here will protect that ;-) I think there is wonderful freedom in becoming ever more your self – and not trying to be something we are not. You are lucky to discover that at an early age ;-)

Fil – Have bought Smashbox blush Radiance – it is screaming pink and intense in the pan, put it blends perfectly on my skin and looks very natural! Thank you for the recommendation.
While I was at it I bought a purple eye shadow called Enchanted (also Smashbox). It looks beautiful. Christine, I know you might think it a bit too young with purple eyeshadow (? I am 37)… but, it looks really good, has a nice clearing effect on the eye, I think. :-)

Wait I’m confused now. I always thought that bright winter (or clear winter as some other websites mention) has the brightest colors of all 12 seasons. But looking at the pic above where you put bright winter and bright spring colors side by side, seems to me that the bright spring is a tad brighter than bright winter. The bright winter colors seem a bit darker and more subdued in that pic, which logically makes perfect sense considering that winter is a dark season as opposed to spring which is light.

But everytime I look at other websites, most of them have me convinced that bright winter is essentially the brightest season in terms of color palette (one particular website even goes on to say that bright winter’s colors are super duper bright). So I’m confused. (Although I guess it wouldn’t make too much difference for both since they are sister seasons so each can wear some colors from both seasons.)

fx,
Both BW and BSp have the brightest, meaning the clearest, colours. Bright doesn’t mean shocking, it means pure colour. High saturation. In this, the Bright Seasons are very close and very high. B Sp are yellower, which may appear brighter as in sunny and light, but that’s not really what ‘bright’ means. Also, we’re depending on what I can find at Polyvore, which isn’t always perfect, and how our monitors affect colour.

Oh, thank you so much for this article! I am a bright spring in coloring and in personality – like a bubbling brook. I especially appreciate the makeup references. I live in very rural Kansas and must order nearly everything online, so having exact colors and brands is so wonderful.
I remember years ago a coworker remarking that she had never seen a fair blonde who could wear such bright colors – well, now we know why!

When I was young I was told I was a winter, everyone of my sister including my mother, are winter. Then in the eighties i told i was autum Stayed forever. kept going back there. Then setteled into being a dark autum. As I got older wearing darker autum coloring I felt dragged down. Then I remembered in school, I would wear green, coral and red shoes.
lime green with black, tourquise golden yellow. Maybe I’am a spring, no, I had redgold hair as a chld red with lots of gold highlights light feckles, but Big brown eyes. People have also commented on my eyes. Dark eyes but not as deep as dark qutm more light and color in them a dark grey rim around them. I think Iam a Bright Spring.
Do say horray now, and dance, been on this misson forever.

Who can know without draping, Cynthia? It’s amazing how easy it is to describe people once their Season is known and everything makes sense, and how hard it is to make sense of person who’s not been correctly draped. You could send me a photo taken every year of your life and I wouldn’t know your Season. Good colour observations though. Lots of Spring clues, I agree.

Thank you for all the research and writing you do about color. I’ve learned so much from you—and truly appreciate your insights.

I—like so many others—wasanalyzed as a winter, then a summer. I NEVER would have considered myself as a spring, although many friends thought I was an autumn. Well after reading you and playing with drapes and lipsticks, I’ve concluded that I am a bright spring. My eyes are dark olive green with yellow and a pumpkin-colored donut space around the pupil.

So many thanks to you for clarifying something that’s fascinated but eluded me for so many years.

Now a question. I think Jackie Kennedy was a bright spring, though I’ve seen her listed a winter. What do you think?

I can see where Jackie could be DW or BW. I always got more of a DW feeling, maybe from the squareness of the jaw. I don’t see her as a Spring, though I’m going from memory that her eyes were very dark.

Bright Spring is the one that defies the averages, that has not stereotypes, that is different every time you see it. The Kibbes can be found in all 12 Tones and I would think the high contrast and sharp smoothness could be great.

I may have misunderstood, but I thought the idea of colour analysis was to find the colours a person looked best in, from the point if being make up free. Recently ive noticed that so many color analyses seem to rely on making the make up match the saturation of the drapes, not the person, it feels like everyone cd be draped as a bright spring with a bright pink lippie and I feel this is inauthentic.

I think you understood it the same way that I do. These are the colours we look best in makeup free, at least by my definition of best. We look most healthy. The skin is tightest to the bones. The pores are smallest. The face is slimmest. And many other benefits. It goes a bit deeper too, in that these are the colours that we really are. Women will sometimes say, “But I still see this shadow or that blemish.” The answer is, “That’s because you really have that blemish or that shadow. Now I can make them go away in various ways, but nothing happens without a price. If the price is to yellow the skin or widen the face, that is too high a price.” So, we are finding the truth of you.
I am sure you made this connection already but the idea is not so much to match the drapes in everything you buy. Again, it is that but it also goes deeper in that you are the drapes. If you are a Light Spring, your inherent pigments are those drapes. Otherwise you would have tested into another Season’s drapes. The palettes are the person, the person is the drapes, the drapes are the palettes. The entire system is linked together, follows the same premises, the same incremental colour shifts. There is no way that everyone could be draped as BSp if the analyst has correct drapes and understands how to interpret them. No way in the world. And I am 100% on board with you, that would be hopelessly inauthentic and not look best, or even good.

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